"Culture" continues to claim more lives

In the olden days going to circumcise was something every young boy desired, and was the most talked about topic in the villages, and if you were pass the age of 12/13 years not circumcised you were teased till you do.

Circumcision is something greatly valued in the black culture especially among the Nguni nation, and when (umkhwetha) comes back from the mountain (ntabeni) there will be a celebration ceremony for him and everyone in the village will know and will be invited and will no longer be addressed by just his name by the younger children he is then addressed in a more respected manner (bhuti) becuase he is now grown and is a man

Back in the 90's circumcision was all about tradition, and adulthood and families paid a chicken to the person initiating the boy and there was not much death as it has been in recent years, as opposed to now parents pay about R1700 for their sons to be circumcised, and that has diverted the real meaning of this culture to some easy money making scheme.

Doctors advise that this is done at the hospital, by qualified doctors to prevent these deaths, but in the Xhosa culture its not the same even if you go to the doctor you are still regarded as uncircumcised (inkwenkwe) hence despite all the reported deaths they still go anyway hoping for everyone to go well

Twenty initiates have died following botched circumcisions in the Eastern Cape, Sixty boys were rescued from 11 initiation schools that had since been closed down. They were taken to hospitals in the area. All 60 of them have septic wounds and are dehydrated ... four of the boys even need their genitals removed completely, as it could result in death if it’s not. We are just waiting for consent from their parents to perform the procedures.

Earlier this week, seven under-aged initiates were rescued from an illegal initiation school run by Mtshiyelwa Mtshayina Ndoda, a 55-year-old unregistered traditional surgeon who had been arrested several times for the offence.
“He was recently given a three-year suspended sentence but he continued doing the same thing. In the past five years close to 20 initiates died in his schools and 15 had their penises amputated.”

During school holidays it is the time that boys go to initiation schools, but this time of the year to most parents has become rather a dreadful period where they remember their deceased children.

Fellow South Africans till when will this continue to claim the lives of our brothers, your children, your nephews, your cousins without being dealt with, i dont blame it on tradition neither should you i blame it on greed, beacuse every Tom, Dick and Harry goes delusional at the thought of how much they can make out of these poor boys forgetting the risk they putting them through, in 1995 my brother went to initiation school and there was about 700 of them and every single one of them came back, but thats not something you can say nowadays, you just hold thumbs that it does not happen to your child. dear fellow citizens and members of our culture " LET US KEEP TRADITION AS IS AND NOT USE IT FOR OUR SELFISH GAIN"